Mika Hakkinen speaks...

Interview transcript from Hockenheim:

''The season so far hasn't been going exactly how I wish it would go. There have been a lot of downhills and some uphills, and there has been great results and there has been quite bad results. I should really go one by one, [through] every grand prix, [to say] what has been happening and you would say, on one hand, it has been a very tough season. So far - and, of course, I'm not leading the championship - obviously the situation is not ideal but, on the other hand, the situation could be worse.

It's seven races to go and it's a massive amount of races - so, at the moment, I'm heading for this [German] grand prix, [and] only for this grand prix. I don't think about what happened yesterday - I don't think about what's going to happen tomorrow - basically, I'm just concentrating for this event - this single event and [to] try to maximise my personal performance and try to win it.

The situation [that] happened in Austria [was great]. Winning that grand prix has certainly given me more confidence, and [provided] more confidence for the team, particularly for my mechanics and my engineers, so I'm sure when we're now heading for the last seven races we should be in a very good position to fight for the championship.

It has been quite difficult coming into this grand prix, and the reason for that is that there has been a lot of pressure on the team since the last grand prix - are the points going to go away [or] are we going to keep the points, or whatever - so it's been very tiring for everybody. I wish the outcome would have [been] a different one, because I'm a team member and a team player, so I wish the team would not lose ten points. Of course, I was glad to be able to keep the ten points for myself, but for the team to lose the ten points is disappointing.

If you won one race, you're a hero, if you lose the next one, you're a loser. I had races in Monaco, for example, [and] Magny-Cours, Canada, where the success was not winning the grand prix or getting the pole position. Automatically, when that happens, somebody else is in the spotlight and, obviously, David had a couple of good races. There was discussion about he's going to go for it, he's going to fight for the championship but, in reality, he has always been up there. All these years he has been fighting up there, like this year.

It doesn't bother me at the moment what the people are talking [about] outside. Most important is to know myself, and what I feel inside, and what kind of relation I have with the team. Personally, I'm confident of maximising [that] towards the end of the season and to see then who has the most points and is the winner.

[Hockenheim]'s a difficult circuit to drive, as you have a combination of very long straights, then a stadium area. What you would like to have [is] a lot of downforce in the stadium area, because it could help your lap time, but then, when you're heading for the back straights, you don't want the downforce [in order] to have a maximum of speed, so it's very challenging for the driver and for the engineers.

Very often, people don't understand what it takes to travel and to race, and what it takes to travel to a test and a promotion, and the more a driver can have time off and stay in one place for long time - so you don't have to unpack and pack and unpack - [the more] it gives us a certain stability [in] life. If you have to travel in a week five times, six times, it's a very difficult process in your life and it's very tiring. We try to win a championship and we win it [at the] end of [the] day driving the car at the track. If the driver cannot do the maximum for driving the car because he is tired or not focused, then we're going to lose everything - so the more the driver can have time off is ideal for the job that he is best at.

Since [the] Magny-Cours grand prix, I [have] had an excellent break and made a good result in Austria. Again, I had a break after Austria, so I should be in top form from here - let's see what happens.''

[Source: West Press Service]